Healthy Church - Strong Church | Bold Preaching (November 24th, 2019) - Mike Armstrong

Amen.

Well, I think that tees us up quite nicely for this morning.

If you would grab your Bible and turn it to 2 Timothy chapter 4.

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

Now we are, of course, working our way through our six uh six distinctives, the six uh main distinctives that we as redemption uh church are committed to upholding and uh pursuing uh to the glory of our awesome, awesome God.

Now, in a day where you know churches and uh you know Christians everywhere seem to be all in on pursuing things like, I don't know, like like church growth metrics, right?

Have you heard that kind of thing before?

You know, churches seem to be all about, you know, let's let's accumulate as much wealth as possible.

Let's try and gain as much power as we possibly can.

Churches uh can sometimes be known for employing uh, you know, the kind of the latest gimmicks, right?

Things that end up building uh little more than hype, right?

Or or maybe it's it's capitulating to the culture, right?

The culture says, ah, we don't like God, we don't like Christianity, we don't like the church, you should be more like this.

And some are just you know kind of caving and compromising all over the place to try and uh give the people uh what they want.

At other churches, they're all about you know holding to their traditions, right, at all costs.

Right?

Traditions are not a bad thing.

We have our traditions as well.

But it can be very easy to hold our traditions kind of above and beyond even the scriptures, all right?

And the list, I mean, it goes on.

Right?

You can find uh, you know, a million different opinions and and and thoughts and philosophies and strategies, you know, about you know what the church should be, right?

What the church should be about, you know, and in a day where that is the case and people will say just about anything, uh we simply want to ask the question, uh, what does God have to say about it?

Right?

What does the Lord have to say according to his word?

What a what a healthy church, what a what a strong church looks like.

And so uh so far uh in our series, we have looked at uh God's uh given mission for us to make disciples, right?

We've we've got to do that.

That's what Jesus said in Matthew 28.

Go therefore and make disciples.

Just last week we tackled the idea of being a church that is committed to uh to fervent prayer, right?

Praying fervently, passionately.

We're all in on that.

Well, this morning we're gonna be looking at the primacy of the scriptures, all right, and specifically how we must be a church committed to the centrality of the Bible in absolutely everything that we do.

And specifically, even more than that, the bold preaching of it.

All right?

I mean, that is my primary role here as uh as your pastor, but listen, that's something that you also commit to.

You're like, wait a second, am I am I up next week?

Am I preaching?

No, that's not exactly what I'm saying.

Uh, but you're committed to it in the sense that you desire it.

Right?

You desire that, you you insist on that, right?

You're you're all about it.

You're you're eager to put yourself underneath it, underneath the authority of God's word, submitting to his word in all ways.

And of course, that is something that all of us, myself included, we do together.

All right, and so we're gonna look at bold preaching today and why it is uh that we're going all in on that.

And so let's uh pray and commit this these things to the Lord, and then we'll dive in.

Lord, we come before you and uh recognize that uh your word, we've sung about it, we've uh sung to you about it, we've thanked you for it, God, and we want to continue to do that and even just begin to kind of unpack uh the importance of your word and and why you tell us to preach it and and why we should do that boldly and and what that does in us and for us and through us and and to you, Lord.

It glorifies you.

And so, Father, I pray that as we um work through these passages here this morning, God, that you would give us much grace.

I pray that you would uh continue to just build uh a deep uh conviction in our souls about the importance of the scriptures, Lord, that we may not we may not go off to the right or to the left, Lord, but that we would uh do everything that we would that we would think, that we would behave, that we would respond, that we would act according to your word.

And so, Lord, uh help us we pray in these things, Lord, to your glory in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Well, here we go.

First thing uh this morning is we are committed to glorifying God through bold preaching.

Why?

Well, because uh the truth is what's needed uh when so much is at stake, right?

So much is at stake.

And uh, if you're already turned there in your Bibles to 2 Timothy 4, we're gonna be looking at the first uh five verses of that chapter.

And by the way, because we're gonna be bouncing around more than usual uh to a couple of different passages here this morning, this is gonna be up on the screen for you here uh today as well.

All right, now this is Paul's uh instruction to Timothy.

Right now, Timothy uh was a uh uh was a young pastor, a pastor of the church in in Ephesus.

You know, the the letter to the Ephesians, that's Timothy's uh church as well.

Now, this is regarding uh his responsibilities uh as as a preacher.

Okay, but at the same time, we're given insight here into what is a crucial, crucial, all-important element of any healthy and strong church.

Okay, and that is the proclamation of God's word.

All right, so you see there in verse one, Paul says, he says, I charge you, okay, talking to Timothy.

Now, history uh tells us that that Paul wrote this uh at the very end of his life.

He wrote it from a prison cell in Rome.

Okay, he knew that that his death was was going to be soon.

And so he writes this to his young protege, who uh he has poured so much into.

And you can kind of think uh and just imagine as Paul was writing this, he's he's thinking, man, like in my in my final correspondence here to Timothy, I I gotta charge him, okay?

I've got I've gotta I've gotta push him to do and and to hold to what is of utmost importance in his church.

And so he says there again, he says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus.

And so what we learn from that there is that that his charge, it's ultimately not just just him as as a man, it's not just coming from Paul, right?

It's coming from the Lord, it's coming from God, it's coming from Christ Jesus, who of course hold the ultimate authority to issue such an order.

Right?

And he goes on to say of God, of Christ Jesus, that he is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom.

Okay, so in that line right there, I mean, I think it's very, very easy for us to kind of just kind of speed past that a little bit, right?

Kind of kind of glance over it and kind of get to maybe the verses that we're more familiar with or whatever, but but there's a lot uh in there that is that is so uh so key for us, right?

We're told precisely in that line there, what is at stake.

Okay, Paul, and again ultimately God, Christ Jesus, issues this charge to Timothy because what hangs in the balance here is people's eternity.

Okay, no small thing.

Okay, Christ Jesus, we see there, is is returning, right?

The word is is appearing, is appearing at some point soon.

Right?

His kingdom is the word, it's his kingdom is coming.

It will be it will be fully established through God's final triumph over Satan forever, and the inauguration of a new heavens and and a new earth.

Now that right there, that's awesome.

Right?

That that is amazing.

That is our that is our hope.

That is what what the church, what Christ's followers have to look forward to.

That is that is what we were living for, that is our future.

Okay, but guess what?

With that also comes the judgment of the living and the dead.

Right?

You see that there, where every single person who lives or who has has ever lived will stand before God someday.

Okay, and answer, answer for every single deed ever done, every sin committed.

That is a fearful thing.

Right?

That is that is a terrifying thing when you think that that God is holy and and we on our own.

We're so, so far from that, right?

That is that is terrifying uh when you really uh think about it.

Now, why?

Well, because the Bible tells us the truth that on our own merits and our own morality and in our own righteousness and our own good works and and all of that, you and I, we we can't possibly hope to be left standing when that judgment is all said and done.

Right?

We we we we can't.

Right?

I mean, the Bible is just so clear that that we all, every single person, you myself, we all fall short of the glory of God.

Right?

He is He is perfect, we are so not.

Right?

The Bible says that there is no one righteous, no not one.

Right?

All throughout the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, we learn uh that there is this reality, that this place called hell.

Right?

Jesus, I don't know if you're aware of this, but in the Gospels, Jesus speaks far more about hell than he even does about heaven.

Right?

The Bible is is is crystal clear about that and and that this is where sinful people are headed.

That is the pathway that we are on.

Okay, and and as and as uncomfortable as as all of that is to think about, let alone, let alone speak about and utter, I would say that that is truth uh that people need to hear.

Would you agree with that?

Okay, so considering that that Christ is returning, all right, and and judgment is coming, right?

Eternity is is at stake here.

Because of these things, Paul implores Timothy, right?

This is coming with some with some fire, right?

This is coming with some some urgency.

He says there in verse 2, take a look.

He says, preach the word, right?

Preach the word.

Why?

Well, because the word warns us of these things, right?

It warns us of what's ahead.

It it tells us the the bad news side of truth, if you want to look at it that way.

Again, it tells us that that judgment is coming for, you know, and we're sinners, and and that's that's not good.

Right?

But it also tells us the good news side of truth, right?

That God lovingly put a plan into motion to save you and I before it's too late, right?

And that plan was Jesus dying for sinners.

Right?

Jesus died.

Now I love this quote here by Al Moller, and we're gonna get this up on the screen.

This is describing what happens when a person puts saving faith in Christ Jesus.

I love this description.

He says, We believe that that justification, okay, justification means to be declared righteous.

That's that's really what we mean.

When you when you put your faith in Jesus Christ and confess your sin and he becomes Lord, you are then justified, all right?

So we believe that justification is the judicial act of God whereby he imputes or or or transfers from Christ to you, right, to believing sinners, the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, forgiving their sin and rendering them acceptable before God.

Right?

When when you or or anyone becomes a Christian, this is exactly what's taking place.

Right?

This is the good news of the gospel.

It's what we find in in the pages of Scripture, in the Bible.

It is people's only hope of salvation.

Right?

And and because of that, we must proclaim it boldly.

Right?

That's that's what we have to do.

It's it's what we preach, it's it's why we preach.

Right?

Eternity is at stake.

Okay, but there's even in even more at stake here, right?

It's not just about our eternity, which is massive enough to consider, but also our growth here in this life, on this, on this side of eternity.

Right?

True Christians grow.

Once God justifies you, you see it in the quote there, we are then sanctified, right?

So when you are justified, God chooses to see you as though you've done what Jesus did on the cross.

But practically speaking, we're still we're still broken.

Right?

There's still work to be done.

We still sin.

And so sanctification is the process by which the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, changes us and and transforms us.

Right?

And preaching the truth of God's word accomplishes that in us too.

And so this is why Paul urges Timothy, let's go back to the passage there on the screen.

He says, he says, be ready in season and out of season.

Be ready.

So essentially, Paul's telling Timothy, listen, man, you're always on duty.

Right?

Be ready at all times to preach.

Okay?

And then he uses these three words here.

He says, he says, reprove, rebuke, and exhort.

Okay, to reprove means uh to reprimand.

It means to to expose, it's it's to show someone their fault.

That sounds fun, right?

Now, again, that that that next word there is is to rebuke.

It's it's a very similar word.

It's it's to warn, it's to express a strong disapproval, even.

Now, exhort, if you're like looking for some some kind of some nice words here, it means to urge.

It means to encourage or to persuade somebody to the right uh course of action.

Okay, these are the duties of a pastor, of a preacher, but it's also the function of God's word in our lives.

Okay, so uh uh as much as our flesh doesn't like to hear it, right?

We're we're proud people, we really are.

That's not a good thing, by the way.

As much as we don't like to hear it, we all need to be reproved and uh and rebuked at times.

And if we don't, if we don't humble ourselves, if we don't, if we don't welcome God's word to do that in our hearts and expose us and and reprimand us when we sin and all of that, listen, we flat out don't grow.

Right?

Have you ever have you ever sat under a sermon before, and maybe that's here, or maybe you've listened to another sermon or been in another church, and and the Lord just convicts you?

And you sense that, man, the way I've been living and and my my thought process and my motives and all of those things, they're wrong, and and you sense that conviction there, that that's a good thing.

Right?

But we also we also need to be to be exhorted.

Right?

We need to be encouraged along the way as well.

I find that you know, the older that I get, I don't know if you know you would consider me old, maybe that's a little bit relative, but I find that the older that I get and and the longer that I live with Christ, I absolutely still need to be rebuked and I need to be, you know, uh, you know, what's what's the other word there?

Reproved, thank you.

I still need that, but I find a lot of the time it's it's that I need I need encouragement.

I just need to be exhorted.

Right?

Do you ever come in here and you just feel like you've had your teeth kicked in all week?

Right, and you're so down and and you're like, I I know how I'm supposed to live, but but I'm I just keep going after something else.

And it's not ultimately satisfying, and and and things aren't going very well, and and and I wish I was in a better place with the Lord, and I wish I was further ahead, and and at the same time, though, through through a passage, you find that you're you're getting encouraged uh to continue to have your eyes on Christ and and it's his strength in you, and and keep going.

Right?

All of this happens through the preaching of God's word.

Renan, again, I don't know about you, but I've found that that all three of these words, right?

I I've sat under preaching before where I kind of I kind of get a glimpse of all three of these things within one sermon, even.

Right?

You ever come out of a sermon and you're like, man, I I feel so convicted about some things, and and I've been kind of laid bare and some things have been exposed for the same time.

I'm like also, I'm encouraged, and I and I feel joy, and I sense that the you know the Lord's grace, and I'm reminded of the gospel again and what Christ has done for me, and and it's that urging to continue to hold fast to Him.

Now, Paul says, we continue in the passage here that this preaching is to be done with what?

But with complete patience and teaching.

I've been thinking about this.

I think it's such a good reminder for all of us here that the growth that we seek, really, in any area of our life, is usually kind of slow.

Right?

It's kind of this gradual thing.

Maybe that's not the only reason for complete patience and teaching, which we need to be with each other.

But Paul goes on to say here, and this is so illuminating as as to why we must be so committed to boldly preaching the truth, because there's even more at stake.

Take a look at verse 3.

It says, for the time is coming.

Now, by the way, church, that time that Paul is describing here in this text, we are seeing now.

Right?

We are seeing now across the evangelical landscape, and this is this has been going on for decades and decades and even centuries.

He says, the time is coming when people will not endure sound or healthy teaching, but having itching ears, what a picture.

Right?

They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.

And they will, this is so sad, and they will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths, myths are like lies or errors.

And then he just encourages Timothy here with this final part.

He says, As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of the an evangelist, share the gospel.

He's like, fulfill your ministry.

Now, have you ever had a conversation uh with somebody before, and somebody has maybe sought you out for some wisdom and and and some counsel and and they want to hear you know from you and they've got a problem in their life, and you know, as they're sharing this with you, you know, you're seeking like how can I how can I guide them according to God's word and all of that?

But somewhere kind of along the way, you start to pick up on, oh, wait a second, I'm not the only person that they've come to for this.

Right?

And you realize that they've actually talked to like you know, three, four, five, or, or even more people, right?

And really, at the end of the day, you kind of sense that they're they're not really looking for the truth, right?

That's not really what they want.

Really, what they want is what they want to hear, right?

They want you to be a flesh sympathizer and encourage them to go down the path, the wrong path, that they're already on.

Okay, that's really just an example of what the general tolerance is for truth these days, even among churches.

Okay, we can expect that of the world.

We can expect that that the world would would not be about truth.

We know that they don't even believe in absolute truth, and they say that absolutely.

Right?

They would say it's about your truth, and it's about my truth, and they can all coexist together.

We should expect that.

Don't even be surprised by all of that.

Okay, but how how sobering is it?

How sad is it really that people who claim to be believers, right?

Churches and denominations and and even pastors, right, they've they've lost their appetite for truth.

They don't want to endure sound teaching, as Paul says.

Right?

Ears getting itchy.

So let's just find pastors and and teachers who will just tell us what we want to hear.

Right?

Instead of my my sinful passions being extinguished through through the bold preaching of God's truth, it's it's about my passions being being encouraged, right, and being fanned into flame through erroneous doctrine and man-centeredness, right?

Just outright lies.

And again, Paul uses the word myths.

Right?

Truth is being compromised in the very place it should be heralded and thundered forth, right?

The pulpit.

Right, which means the the health and and the strength of the church is at stake.

Right?

It is.

Right?

So why are we so committed to to bold preaching of biblical truth here at redemption?

Okay, well, let me sum this up for you real quick.

This will be on the screen.

Again, it's because judgment is coming.

Right?

Judgment is coming.

Christ Jesus will judge the living and the dead.

Right?

We cannot escape that.

Hell is real, and eternity is a long time.

Right?

We would be heartless to not tell people about that clearly, tell them plainly, tell them lovingly.

Right?

Judgment is coming.

Another reason, though, that we preach God's word is because his word refines us.

Right?

It refines us.

It uh uses the word reprove and rebuke and exhort.

Right, if you've got your Bible open to this passage, you can see just two verses back at the end of chapter three here, it says this.

It says, All scripture, starting in verse 16, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable.

Well, for what?

For teaching, right?

For reproof, for correction, and training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Right?

The reason we preach God's word is because it refines us, it transforms us, it makes you and I mature, it completes us, it makes us more effective in God's hands.

And when we are more effective in God's hands, guess who gets more glory for it?

He does.

Right?

And so that is why we proclaim, and here's the third reason we do.

Because errors are flat out devastating.

Right?

Remember, Paul says the time is coming.

People are not gonna want to endure this, they're gonna walk away from it.

And listen, if you and I, if if if Christians, if churches are not anchored to the truth of the Bible, you and I will be at the mercy of whatever sounds right.

We will.

Oh, the world says this, that sounds kind of good to me.

And because we kind of push the scriptures off to the side, that sounds good.

I'm gonna go after that.

Are you sure?

I think at some point, if we continue to reject truth and go after lies and consider ourselves Christian, I think our our very salvation at some point is called into question, is it not?

Right?

You don't even believe what's true.

How do you know you're saved?

It's not good, it's not good at all, church.

Much is at stake.

Truth is what's needed, and so we gotta proclaim it.

Here's the second thing.

We are committed to glorifying God through bold preaching because the word thoroughly pierces and transforms our hearts.

All right, and so this mines down a little bit deeper into some of the things we've already been referencing here this morning.

But Hebrews 4, chapter 12, you can turn there, or again it's on the screen.

But here's what it says, and this will be familiar to many of you.

It says, for the word of God, yeah, the word of God, meaning God's message, right?

God's message found in the Bible, and of course, personified in Jesus Christ himself, okay?

The word of God that we are committed to preaching boldly, it says, is living and active.

What an amazing thought that that is, right?

That the God's message that that you and I read in his word today, or any time that we open it up, it it's it's alive.

Right?

It's not it's not dead, right?

It's not it's not stagnant.

No, it's it's active, it's it's accomplishing something.

Right?

I already referenced 2 Timothy 3 that all scripture is breathed out by God.

God breathed in some of your translations, right?

The Holy Spirit of God takes this book that you hold in your hands, and He He does something with it.

Something powerful and amazing and supernatural.

And if you continue in Hebrews 4 12, it says that this word is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing, that's a descriptive word, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and the intentions, or even the motives of the what?

Of the heart.

I mean, there's a there's a lot that I could say about all of that.

Okay, but the bottom line here is that the living and active word of God, when you and I open it up and when we read it, right, when we study it, when we meditate upon it, when we memorize it, what when it is preached, what does it do?

It pierces us, right?

It it gets right down into the deepest parts of our being, right?

Right down into our soul, right down into our spirit, right?

Exposing the bad stuff that's there and and transforming our our thoughts and our and our intentions here, the very motives of our heart.

Right?

That's why you hear me talk about the heart so often.

Right?

It comes up in every single sermon.

Why?

Well, because you and I, we need to, we need to truly grasp and understand and believe what Jeremiah 17, verse 9 says.

Jeremiah 17:9

Right?

Some of you know this passage well, this verse well.

It says there, that the heart is deceitful above all things.

Right?

It's deceitful.

Do you trust your heart?

Every whim, every desire, all of that, are you like, yeah, man, that that's good.

Right?

Follow your heart.

That's what the world will tell you.

That person has such a great heart.

Really?

Because the Bible says that we have a bent towards evil.

Our heart is is deceitful.

It will it will fool you, right?

It will it will drag you down, it will, it will mess you up, it is deceitful above all things.

It says they're and desperately sick.

And then you ask the question who can understand it?

You you you can you can you can sense just the you know his his mind is melting as as he writes this.

Right?

Have you ever noticed that you come away from, let's say, church on a Sunday, right?

You come away and maybe you've been so encouraged, you're like, man, the Lord is awesome, and and I'm gonna commit to all of these things, and I'm feeling so encouraged, and then like two hours later, you're doing something dumb again, right?

And you're like, Well, why?

Why?

Like it was such a good morning.

Like I read my Bible this morning, I was at church, I had such a life-giving conversation with somebody.

I I understand the scriptures in a way that I didn't understand it.

Why is that the case?

Because your heart is sick, man.

It's it's so, so messed up.

It's a disaster.

Right?

But on top of this, as as Christians, we can be so you know easily fooled into thinking that that really living the Christian life, it's really just merely about behaving better than I used to, right?

Or behaving well.

Okay, but uh our focus in that can be little more than just trying to do some external kind of tweaks and changes here and there uh to our behavior.

Have you ever sensed that before in your life?

I'll give you a couple of examples.

Right?

It could be something like you know, I I I know that I shouldn't be looking at porn.

Right?

So I'm not going to tomorrow.

And I'm gonna I'm gonna commit here.

Right?

And I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna put my foot down, right?

And you kind of like, you kind of white knuckle it.

You ever notice that you do that sometimes?

If that tends to be your struggle, some kind of purity thing, I'm gonna I'm gonna try harder, and and you can do that maybe for a while.

Or you know, I feel kind of bad that I keep snapping on my kids.

Okay, so next time I'm just gonna try and be more patient.

Okay, or that person in my small group, right, they drive me crazy.

Right?

But I but I know that I'm supposed to love.

So I'll just I'll just put that smile on.

You keep saying those dumb things, and God bless you, brother.

Right?

We do that.

We know that we're supposed to love, but we kind of just we kind of force it externally.

Why?

Why do we do that?

Well, because again, our hearts are a mess.

Right?

And at the end of the day, none of our outward behavioral tweaks and the different ways that we try hard in our flesh, and all the different tactics that we may employ, they ultimately never get down to fixing the heart.

You notice that yet?

Right?

It's the living and active word of God, right?

Sharper than any sword that's that's ever been made, right?

That just pierces down and and and cuts down into our into our soul and into our spirit.

Right down into the foundation, the the bedrock of our of my thoughts and my uh of my intentions, right?

The intentions of my heart, the motives of my heart.

It's God's word that that does that that work.

Right, and as my heart is being transformed, only then will my outward behavior be real.

Only then will my outward behavior be authentic and and be legit and and and be lasting and and be God glorifying.

Right?

That is why we that is why we preach the word boldly.

Right?

Because nothing else transforms us so thoroughly.

Right?

That is why, and we're gonna have this on the screen here.

That is why we're committed to expository and applicational preaching.

Have you heard those words before?

Expository, uh, in that there's careful work uh that's done uh throughout the week.

This is kind of part of my job here, just kind of pulling back the curtain a little bit, to kind of unearth what the text means by what it says.

Right?

It's through a process, you know, uh called called exegesis.

Right?

And it's and it's studying the kind of the original languages, and and what was the what was the author's original intent in what he said?

What was God really trying to say through the author of this particular passage?

Right?

It's so it's interpretation, trying to figure out what is this, what does this really mean?

Right?

That's the that's the expository side of things.

Hey, applicational in that preaching isn't just about providing you with knowledge.

Right?

It'd be very easy for me to just you know come in here and explain to you here's what here's what the verse means, here's what it means, here's what it means, means, means, means, means.

Knowledge, knowledge, knowledge.

Off you go, you were loved.

Right?

That's not that's not the point.

The point here is that you and I need to be doers of the word, not hearers only.

Right?

That's what James says.

And so that's figuring out, okay, that's what God says.

Knowledge is so, so important, where we have to understand the scriptures properly, but then we have to seek how to apply it to my life.

And that's what we talk about.

That it's applicational because that helps us learn and helps us grow.

That's really what our preaching here aims to accomplish.

And I would appreciate very much if you would pray for me whenever I come to mind for you, that I would be faithful in all of this.

All right, let's keep going here.

Final thing.

We are committed to glorifying God through bold preaching because the Spirit's power through the gospel brings freedom.

Now, if you're anything uh like me, maybe you have been prone a little bit to um marvel at uh the type of person that the apostle Paul was.

Right, you ever done that, you ever thought about him?

I mean, he is, he's a legend, right?

He really is.

He, I mean, he no one really you know accomplished, by God's grace, of course, so much, right?

Instrumental in planting so many of the early churches, discipled uh so many people, was so faithful, endured so much hardship, so many trials, so much difficulty.

He he actually wrote, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he wrote so much of the New Testament, right?

And and so often we just kind of we we kind of just study his life and we study his words that he has to us and realize, like, wow, this guy, this guy's impressive.

And I know that I've kind of been guilty of that as well, and I think we're trying to kind of honor him in, I think, in an appropriate way.

And but sometimes I kind of wonder if Paul would kind of like kind of gag a little bit in his mouth when he kind of you know hears just how much we try to exalt him a little bit.

Because look at how he kind of refers to himself here.

This is 1 Corinthians chapter 2, through 1, verses 1 through 5.

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

Look what he says.

He says, And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

Okay, so what does he mean by that?

Well, Paul's essentially saying, I'm not the greatest public speaker.

Right?

I uh not.

Right?

Others are a lot smarter than I am.

This isn't false humility on Paul's part, where he's like, I'm not that great, but really he's kind of fishing for compliments.

Right?

He's not doing that.

He's just make this just straight up who I am.

Right?

He says, for I decided to know nothing among you except this Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Right?

That's the gospel, right?

That's that's the power for the church.

Okay, and he says this he says, and I was with you in weakness, right, and in and in fear, and in much trembling, and my speech and my message, he kind of reiterates it, were not in plausible words of wisdom.

Do you feel like Paul's painting a picture of himself here that's not all that impressive?

I mean, that's that's pretty obvious, right?

I mean, I mean the the the Greeks, right, he he talked in talked to a lot of Greeks and he and he and he debated with some of their philosophers and some of these people, and and they were kind of known for being all about, you know, their their dynamic and and very very impressive and uh rhetoric, right, and and and waxing poetically and and kind of one-upping each other in their you know, wisdom, so to speak, and their understanding.

And Paul's like, I'm staying away from all that.

He's like, that that's not really where the power is found at all.

He's like, I want to just keep my message on the gospel.

I want to keep that, that's where the focus needs to be, right?

On Jesus Christ and him crucified.

So he says there, my my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but I love this, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest.

Pause there for a second.

What what what does it mean to rest?

Right?

Some of you, I'm I'm gonna be that guy uh later this afternoon.

I'm gonna be the guy resting on the couch, like catching some Z.

Right?

That that's what I'm about on a Sunday afternoon, if I if I possibly can.

Rest, right?

It means freedom from work, right?

It means freedom from labor, activity.

Right?

So he says it's in the demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith may not rest, okay, so that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of men, but in what?

But in the power of God.

Okay, the the gospel is rest.

Right?

The gospel is is freedom for for weary sinners like like you and me.

Right?

The the the gospel is is the message, it is the is the testimony to use his words that that Paul is is hooked up to, right?

And we must be as well, because the gospel provides the only solution, the only solution, right, to those weary and worn out from trying to earn God's approval or God's forgiveness.

Right?

Do you find that you get caught in that rut of legalism?

I'm trying to impress God by what I'm doing here.

It's exhausting.

There's no rest, there's no freedom in that.

You can't possibly earn those things from God.

He already gives it to you through Christ.

The moment that you get saved, right?

You're far too lost to earn that on your own.

You're you're too broken.

Jesus earned it all.

He gives it to you, he gives you his love, he showers that upon you, he pours that into your hearts.

Okay, rest your faith in that power.

Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Okay, that's that's the only message worth preaching boldly.

Right?

That's it.

The only message that brings forgiveness and brings healing and unleashes the Holy Spirit's power into our lives and into his church.

Right?

It's the only message worth resting your faith in, the only message you can possibly rest your faith in.

The only message that brings soul-level freedom that you and I, at the end of the day, that's what we really want.

Right?

That's what we crave.

That's what we need.

Listen, we want to see more demonstration of the spirit and power in our church.

Well, the gospel preached boldly is that is the only thing that unleashes it.

Period.

Right?

That's it.

At the end of the day, church being great, church being amazing, church being healthy and strong.

Okay, it's it's not about the things that that we see in again the evangelical landscape these days.

It's not about the preacher having better public speaking skills.

Right?

It's not about the preacher tapping into high fashion and having a better wardrobe.

Yes, that's a thing.

It's not about the preacher having more charisma.

Right?

He needs to wow us, he needs to melt us with his words.

No, we don't, we don't need more catalytic leaders.

Right?

It's not even about the pastor having a flawless life.

Right?

He is he is everything that we need to be.

No, it's not about that.

Paul Paul doesn't have a flawless life.

He's like, man, I'm lame, I'm I'm weak.

Right?

I'm fearful.

Right?

It's not about that, it's not, it's it's not about the pastor having a fearless aura about him.

I don't have that.

I certainly don't feel that ever.

Right?

The church doesn't all of a sudden become better or more effective once the pastor you know achieves uh, you know, a bigger platform to expand his brand, right?

Like having a popular blog or a book deal.

The church isn't better only when that worship team starts writing albums and winning dove awards.

Look, some of those things are fine.

Okay?

I'm not shredding all of that by any means, but it's just as long as it's not getting in the way of the gospel, right?

As long as it's not replacing Jesus Christ and him crucified.

If it's obscuring that, it needs to go.

Right?

Because that's what the Bible is about.

That's where our freedom is found.

That is, that is where our hope is found.

And so that is what we will center our preaching on.

And that is what we be bold about.

Okay, to God alone will be the glory for all of it.